Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Is Anyone Happy Because of a Drought?

This is the news headline I saw in the Sydney Morning Herald Yesterday:

Farmers depressed by big dry: report

Australia's farmers are both poorer and more depressed as a result of the drought, according to a major new report on the impact of the big dry.

Isn't that kind of stating the obvious?

I mean I'm no expert on farming and droughts, but I have enough basic knowledge to know that plants need water to grow. And if the plants aint growing, the farm will probably not be doing so well.

I think it's also obvious that if your source of income is in jeopardy--if your life and home are in jeopardy; it's very likely you'll be depressed.

Although I DO have a degree in psychology. Maybe the average person can't put two and two together like that; and they need a study and news report to make it clear. (being sarcastic here)

I think I'd be more intrigued by a news article that said Study Shows Farmers are Happy because of a drought. At least, that would be surprising. I'd really be interested in reading about why a farmer is happy that his crops are probably going to fail.

It would probably be better to focus on dealing with water issues than trying to figure out the psychological state of farmers.

This is not the first article I've seen like this. I've seen similar stuff in American Newspapers. There's stuff about how Americans are depressed because of 9/11 or have post-traumatic stress disorder. And these articles were written less than a year after the event. Are we really supposed to be surprised?

I'd be honestly surprised if a large group of people were STILL depressed about it. But so soon after? Of course, most of us were depressed and scared.

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